1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to application status management for an electronic device, such as a printer, in which a plurality of applications are installed, and related methods.
2. Related Art
Multifunction printers that analyze characteristics of internal hardware and software to detect the device status (operating status), and can output this information formatted for viewing, are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2008-310813.
Because multiple applications are often installed in this type of multifunction printer, when a problem occurs it is desirable to identify the application involved. As the number of installed applications increases, monitoring the status of the applications becomes increasingly important. And the number of application platforms, which provide execution environments for the applications, has also increased with increased functionality. These application platforms include, for example, Java® and web browsers.
One way of managing the status of applications running under different application platforms is for each application to have a status output function. This approach, however, means that a status output function must be written into each application, thereby increasing development cost.